


Day 21. Stretch

by Munnin



Series: Fictober [21]
Category: Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-04 10:34:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16345130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Munnin/pseuds/Munnin
Summary: As Djarrah recovers from his injuries, he learns to that the loss of his arm isn't what it seems.





	Day 21. Stretch

**Author's Note:**

> If you’re just joining in, I urge you to read the [whole series](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1145777) from the beginning. I know that look like individual stories but there is an overarching narrative holding them all together. And we're deep enough now I'm not convinced they'd make sense on their own any more.

I spent some time meditating on the future. 

Yoda had taught us that the future was always emotion – changeable and deceptive.

The people of the Iron Trees spoke of foreknowledge as a fire – illuminating if used carefully but dangerous if allowed to run wild. 

After the battle with the Separatists and the loss of my arm, I had returned to my own people. But I could feel the Republic and the Jedi waiting for me. A pressure between my shoulder-blades, drawing me back. A thread that stretched across the galaxy, binding me and pulling at me.

I knew Gel had left me a jump-ring in orbit, a starfighter discreetly parked somewhere safe and only a comm-call away. I could go back any time. 

Part of me wanted to burn the ship. To break the thread. To strand myself here, free of the burden of choice. 

But I wouldn’t, and I wasn’t free of it. The burden of the galaxy was always mine. And I felt it keener than ever before. 

In the cave at the heart of the Iron Tree forest, I had seen things. The future. And it was both emotion and fire. And it would tear the Jedi apart. The Republic. All that has stood for a thousand generations would burn. 

The temple would burn. The blood of children would be spilt. 

Even now, as I stood under one of the waterfalls that were dotted throughout the rugged forest, I felt the fire on my face. 

I wasn’t sure I could stop it. 

But I had a duty to try. 

Would they believe me, the Jedi Council? If I had seen it, surely they had too. How could they not see it?

Unless they were too close, too blind. Too ready to ignore the poison from within. Had their arrogance hardened to a shell around them? Keeping them from seeing. Or was it that fear of emotion that blinded them? Emotion could not be trusted. 

I tipped my head back, feeling the water flow down my shoulder and the fresh scars there. A sabre had sealed as it cut, searing closed the joint of my arm. There was no pain left, the Iron Tree healers had seen to that. But there was still weight – the sense of something present where my arm had been. I almost expected the water to flow around it, to see the outline of my arm in the spray.

I became aware of Kooljac, one of my tribe sisters watching me bathe. I tilted my head to look at her. She was naked but for belt and spear and owned her body more deeply, more completely that any Senator in embroidered robes. It was a lesson I was slow to learn and I still felt the urge to cover myself under her gaze. To be ashamed of my body in the presence of others. 

She grinned and picked up two stones from the edge of the river, one in each hand. She weighted them, balanced them, feeling the smooth surface. She felt their history – from the peak of the mountains where time had broken them down, to every bend in the river as they had tumbled smooth. Every fish that had brushed against them, or hid behind them. To the fall of every raindrop that had made the river flow. 

That was what it was to be one with the land. To be a part of it and to know your place within a deep span of time. To know you are a drop of water, a fish, a mountain. A transient moment in the history of a stone.

And then she threw them to me.

I yelped in surprise and caught them.

One in each hand. 

Beside me, the second rock hovered in the air, right where my hand would have been if I’d still had that arm. 

It dropped, almost as soon as I looked at it but she had proven her point. Nothing was lost while it was still felt. I tossed the other rock back to her and scooped up the one I had dropped, closing my eyes to concentrate on the ghost of my arm.

We stayed there till the sun was low, throwing rocks to each other till I no longer needed to concentrate on my ghost arm. It was part of me. An extension of my body in the Force. It would take practice but I would learn to master it. I would wield both spear and sabre again. And I would be there for my people – both here and in the distant temple. The time to act could come, and I would be ready.

**Author's Note:**

> Josh, with love and thanks


End file.
